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This article studies and summarizes the operating characteristics of a ${G}$ -band folded waveguide traveling wave tube (TWT) amplifier enhanced by the $\pi $ -mode extended interaction cavities. Compared with conventional ${G}$ -band TWTs, the proposed amplifier can at once obtain a higher gain in a shorter interaction circuit length and ensure a proper operating bandwidth. The key of the design is introducing the $\pi $ -mode multigap resonant cavity with alternating wide and narrow slots, which will improve the working performance of the whole device by shortening the length of the interaction circuit, enhancing its interaction effect, and improving its gain of unit length. In this design, the operation bandwidth is expanded by stagger tuning technique. In addition, the influence of cavity loss is examined so that the optimal performance is achieved. The PIC simulation results show that when the operating voltage is 21 kV and the operating current 80 mA, the maximum average output power of the designed TWT amplifier is 65.78 W at 217.4 GHz, which is corresponding to the maximum gain and efficiency of 37.38 dB and 3.9%, respectively. The gain per unit length is 12.64 dB/cm and the 3-dB bandwidth is 3.5 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 0.14 THz angular radial extended interaction oscillator (AREIO) is proposed in this article. The characteristic impedance (${R}/{Q}$), the normalized equivalent conductance (${g}_{e}$), and the starting condition of the cavity are calculated and analyzed. When the metal loss is considered, in order to achieve the starting condition, it is necessary to increase the period length (${p}$) to improve $\vert {g}_{e}\vert $. The performance of the AREIO is simulated by particle-in-cell (PIC). The voltage tuning range and the output performance under different angular angles of the cavity are investigated. Under the condition of lossless and the electron beam of 11.5 kV and 1.5 A, the peak output power and interaction efficiency of the AREIO (8°) are 5.46 kW and 31.7%, which have increased by 24.1% and 6.2% in comparison with conventional sheet beam. When considering the metal loss, the optimal angular angle will decrease to 4°. In addition, the cavity is fabricated and tested, and the results of ${S}_{{11}}$ in operating mode are consistent with the simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel electron-optical system (EOS) for ${G}$ -band traveling-wave tubes (TWT) is investigated by simulation and verified by experiment. The EOS includes a sheet beam electron gun, a tunable periodic cusped magnetic focusing (TPCMF), and a collector. An elliptical focus electrode (FE) featuring a simple geometry and easy fabrication is utilized to compress the pencil beam into the sheet beam with a cross section of 0.4 mm $\times0.1$ mm. The electron gun with a cylindrical cathode of 0.8 mm diameter generates the sheet beam with voltage of 22 kV and current of 115 mA. Based on the sheet beam electron gun, the TPCMF with easy assembly and compact size is then proposed. The experimental results show that the beam transmission is 92.1% within a beam tunnel (its length 21.2 mm and cross section 0.8 mm $\times0.15$ mm). The EOS is suitable for ${G}$ -band TWT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we propose a simulation method to investigate the noise mechanism of traveling-wave tube (TWT). Based on the nonlinear theory of Lagrangian description, 1-D noise model is established to analyze the shot noise and the velocity noise of the electron beam in the drift space, which clearly shows that the beam noise propagates along the electron beam with standing wave shape. The shot noise and the velocity noise can be periodically converted into each other along electron beam transmission, which is consistent with the prediction of the classical noise theory developed by Pierce and Danielson (1954). Using the nonlinear beam–wave interaction theory, the evolution process of the shot noise and the velocity noise of the electron beam transforming to the electromagnetic wave in TWT is illustrated. The calculated results show that the input position of the slow wave circuit may affect the noise power spectral density (NPSD) of the device. The proposed method can provide more intuitive and simple images to explain the noise mechanism of TWT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel sine groove waveguide slow wave structure (SGW-SWS), originated from the sine waveguide (SW), is proposed for a wideband terahertz (THz) traveling wave tube (TWT). SGW-SWS not only has high interaction impedance in a relatively wide frequency band, but also has a wide beam tunnel. In addition, it can be fabricated using the Nano-Computer Numerical Control (CNC) milling techniques. The high-frequency simulation results show that, under the same dispersion, the passband of SGW-SWS is 23 GHz wider than that of SW-SWS, and the average interaction impedance of SGW-SWS is higher than that of SW-SWS in the whole passband. And the transverse dimension of beam tunnel is independent of the dispersion characteristics of SGW-SWS, so the beam current can be further increased by enlarging the size of beam tunnel. Moreover, the particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation results reveal that the saturated power and electronic efficiency of SGW-TWT in the frequency range of 201–260 GHz are more than 84.9 W and 2.72%, respectively, when the operating voltage is 20.8 kV and the beam current is 150 mA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a novel dielectric-supported staggered dual-meander-line (DS-SDML) planar slow-wave structure (SWS) is proposed for a traveling wave tube (TWT) working at ${E}$ -band. The proposed staggered arrangement of meander-lines (MLs) leads to a stronger beam–wave interaction and achieves higher output power as compared to the symmetric arrangement. The input–output couplers have been designed by using staggered stepped double ridge waveguide, to connect the standard ${E}$ -band rectangular waveguide and the DS-SDML SWS. An attenuator and pitch tapering have been applied to the proposed SWS to suppress the unwanted frequencies and to improve the output power. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation results show that for an 11.8-kV, 200-mA sheet-beam, the output power can reach 283 W at 75 GHz, with a maximum gain and electronic efficiency of 34.5 dB and 11.9%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traveling wave tube (TWT) is an attractive solution for wideband and high-power sources or amplifiers in the terahertz (THz) band. In this article, a novel slow-wave structure (SWS) for TWT, named double tunnel sine waveguide (DTSW), which is based on sine waveguide (SW), is proposed. The following key technologies are adopted: 1) the rectangular holes, at which the operating mode is cutoff, are alternately opened on the sine-shaped ridges to form two electron beam tunnels and 2) the lower surface of rectangular holes is flush with the top of sine-shaped ridges. Compared with the SW-SWS, DTSW-SWS has the wider operating band and higher interaction impedance under the condition that the phase velocity of the two SWSs is at the same level. In addition, DTSW-SWS is simple in structure and easy to fabricate. The particle-in-cell simulation results reveal that DTSW-TWT has an output power of more than 202 W in the frequency range of 202–255 GHz with the maximum power of ~405 W and electron efficiency of ~9.8% at 215 GHz, under the operating voltage of 23 kV and beam current of 180 mA. Therefore, the DTSW should be considered as a promising SWS for the high-power and wideband THz traveling wave amplifier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large signal beam-wave interaction model for the analysis of folded waveguide traveling wave-tube (FWG TWT) is proposed. The slow-wave structure is modeled as a sequence of coupled resonant cavities. The electron beam is treated as a current source that can induce electromagnetic waves in the cavity. The beam-wave interacting process is modeled as an active matrix. Compared with the other models only calculating the in-band characteristic of FWG TWT, our model can provide characteristic analysis in both in-band and near cutoff regions, and thus broaden operating bandwidth and suppress oscillation. As verification, two FWG TWT examples were designed by using our model. Its performances predicted by our code agree well with that obtained by the experiment and particle-in-cell software, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-harmonic traveling-wave tube (HHTWT) is designed, developed, and tested in this paper. This device is configured as a multiplier–amplifier with Q-band input signals and its third harmonic, i.e., D-band output power. The tested result demonstrates that 280 mW at 133.5 GHz is obtained as a result of 200 mW at 44.5-GHz input signal. The simulation and experiment validate that the high-harmonic radiation can be generated and amplified in the HHTWT. The approach described in this paper could find application in exploring high power, wideband tunable terahertz source. This paper is expanded from a conference paper on IVEC 2017. The detail design produce and tested result are added in this paper. The explanation of the simulation and tested results is also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Angle log-periodic meander line microstrip radial sheet beam traveling-wave tube is one kind of novel minimized vacuum device with low beam voltage. To generate and focus the radial sheet electron beam, a novel radial divergent sheet beam electron optical system, including the tractable radial sheet electron beam gun and miniaturized and feasible radial small tunable periodic cusped magnetic focusing system, is proposed in this paper. The fan-shaped radial sheet beam is emitted from the cylindrical surface cathode, compressed in axial direction, and confined in azimuthal direction by the focusing electrode. Simulation results show that the total emission of the angular radial sheet beam gun is 51.2 mA with the dimensions of 0.26~\text mm \times 8 ° under the voltage of 1.7 kV, and the fan-shaped radial sheet beam can totally pass through the fan-shaped drift tunnel under the magnetic field. The experimental results are good in agreement with the simulation results. The tested angular radial sheet beam transmission efficiency is >90% in an 18.8-mm-length beam tunnel with the fill factor of 50%. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a high-power Ka-band traveling-wave tube (TWT) driven by a sheet electron beam is proposed and demonstrated by means of the simulation and experimental methods. The single grating rectangular waveguide with large width-to-height ratio is used as the slow-wave structure (SWS). An $E$ -plane bend energy coupler is put forward to feed this wide SWS. An irregular transition structure between the input waveguide and the SWS is suggested and designed, which is beneficial to suppress the self-excited oscillation. For a practical electron beam (20 mm $\times \,\, 1$ mm, 150.1 kV, 850 A, and 20-ns), the output power of this single rectangular grating sheet beam TWT is larger than 750 kW from 34.5 to 35.4 GHz. The maximum power is 1.21 MW at 35 GHz, corresponding to a gain of 20.4 dB. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We have theoretically investigated the transport of a sheet electron beam focused by a uniform axial magnetic field in a metamaterial-loaded waveguide. A theoretical model has been proposed to analyze the sheet electron beam transport. In this model, we have used CST simulations to obtain the mean potential on the metamaterial as the boundary condition. According to the boundary condition, the space-charge electric field and the beam curling have been theoretically analyzed. It is found that the beam curling can be greatly reduced by decreasing the spacing between the metamaterial and the sheet electron beam. This model is verified using the CST simulations. This paper can pave the way for developing brand new metamaterial-based vacuum electron devices with a sheet electron beam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel small tunable periodic cusped magnet (NSTPCM) system is proposed for the purpose of realizing low voltage, big current sheet electron beam propagation in a long distance in engineering, which is composed of a series of position-fixed magnet blocks in alignment and freely sliding staggered pole pieces. This kind of NSTPCM not only generates higher magnetic field in the axial direction but also realizes more convenient adjustment of magnetic field in the transverse direction. This NSTPCM system has been successfully applied in a Ka-band sheet electron beam staggered double vane traveling wave tube. The tested sheet beam transmission efficiency is $>93$ % in a 112.7-mm-length slow-wave structure under the condition of beam voltage 24.3 kV and beam current 0.8 A. Moreover, the measured output power is $>75$ W in the range from 33 to 37.5 GHz, and the maximum output power is 128 W at 34 GHz. This paper provides the foundation for the development of sheet electron beam vacuum devices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The sheet beam vacuum electron device is an attractive choice for generating high-power high-frequency microwave radiation. A millimeter-wave sheet beam backward wave oscillator (BWO) is presented in this paper. The rectangular waveguide grating structure is used as its slow wave structure. The BWO is driven by a sheet beam with a cross-sectional area of 30 mm \times 1 mm which is generated by a thin cathode. For a beam voltage of 167 kV and a beam current of 1.4 kA, the output power is 40 MW at 36.6 GHz. The beam–wave interaction efficiency is about 17%, which is higher than that of conventional hollow beam BWO. It is clear from the results presented in this paper that the sheet beam device is promising for producing high-efficiency high-power millimeter-wave radiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]